Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Our youth are watching, and our behavior today will largely determine their future.

How in the world, one may well
ask, has it come to this? I’ll tell you. The term “civilized”
is defined as: “marked by well-organized laws and rules about how people behave
with each other. The expectation of a civilized people or society is that their
behavior and their interaction with others be polite, reasonable, and respectful.”
Throughout the history of mankind these traits have been encouraged and
expected. If people wished to be accepted, well received and successful, they understood
they were required to behave as though they were civilized. Young people
observed these characteristics in all successful people. They were taught from
an early age that there were consequences for bad or uncivilized behavior, and everything
they observed in their church, their immediate family, the media, the
professional world, and even politics for the most part, proved this to be true.
Today, much of our society believes the opposite to be true.Today civil, respectful behavior is placed in
the same category as political correctness and actually discouraged and disparaged
by much of society. Our youth today see coarse, crude, vulgar, disrespectful,
foulmouthed behavior rewarded and encouraged in a way which would have been entirely
unimaginable and abhorrent by all past generations.They hear this behavior applauded and
encouraged from the media, much of society, political candidates, elected
leaders, and even the pulpit.And then
we ask how is this possible.How we’ve
degenerated to this point is no mystery.Whether
we care enough to reverse it by our own efforts and behavior is the question.
One thing remains true: bad, irresponsible, uncivilized, disrespectful behavior
has consequences. It has brought down entire civilizations in the past. It
requires little imagination to envision that happening again.Correcting this sad state of affairs relies
on each one of us doing better ourselves and expecting better from others. Our
youth are watching, and our behavior today will largely determine their future.
SC